


Budgetary Considerations

by misura



Category: Sarantine Mosaic - Guy Gavriel Kay
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-08 09:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8838901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "The life of the retired charioteer is indeed glorious, his days filled with comfort and pleasure."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribe/gifts).



"The life of the retired charioteer is indeed glorious, his days filled with comfort and pleasure."

Astorgus looked up from his paper-laden desk. Scortius read annoyance, frustration and a certain amount of impatience on his face, meaning it was probably safe to proceed. Not that reading anything else would have caused him to leave, but on occasion, Astorgus required a gentler sort of handling than usual, like a horse from which one knows one has no right to ask or expect more from than has already been given.

"If you were considering to apply for Khardelos' position, I suggest you spare us all the embarrassment."

Scortius ignored this feint as it deserved to be ignored. "Then again, I suppose that you might have a some dancing girls hidden behind that cabinet over there, and, well, amidst all these mountains of paperwork, an amfora or two of wine is concealed easily enough."

"As always, it is both a pleasure and an honor to be visited by the First of the Blues. Was there something you wanted, other than to keep me from my work?"

"Sit down? Well, why not." Scortius sat, taking in the office. Glorious, indeed. "Wine?" He idly wondered if Astorgus had been expecting him. A factionarius might receive important visitors from time to time, yet the chair he had sat down in could hardly be called 'comfortable'.

"I don't have any. Nor any dancing girls, which is probably a good thing," Astorgus went on. "Given that it wouldn't take more than one good look at your face to make them change their minds about whom they would prefer to keep company this evening."

"You misunderstand me," Scortius said, producing two cups and filling both of them, after a shrug from Astorgus. "I confess, I forgot to bring any dancers."

"I'm too busy for that sort of thing, anyway."

"Like I said: full of comfort and pleasure. If the goal is to convince me not to retire early, you have succeeded most admirably." Scortius sipped his wine, delighted but unsurprised to find that Strumosus had given him the sort sold at truly obscene prices.

Usually, the cook was less keen on 'wasting' such wine, but Scortius had made a point of mentioning that he would be sharing it with Astorgus, knowing that Strumosus might well view this visit as an opportunity to remind Astorgus of the many culinary delights money could buy.

Strumosus had known Scortius had known this, of course. It would be several months before Scortius might hope to receive a wine as distinguished again, no matter with whom he'd be sharing it.

"You were thinking of retiring?" Astorgus' tone was skeptical, even if there was a hint of alarm to his expression. "Rather early for that, isn't it?"

"I'm young and I'm winning. I have no intention of retiring any time soon." Astorgus had not let the fact that he'd been winning stop him, Scortius knew. Astorgus had been nearly forty years of age, though.

Astorgus was a few years shy of fifty now. On some days, he even looked it.

On most days, he didn't. "It's better to retire when you're still winning than when you've already started to slip," Astorgus said. "Let people remember you in your glory days."

Scortius had been there, when Astorgus had come out of retirement by popular demand. As he was now, he knew he might have won that second race. With Servator, he would have been confident.

At the time, he'd lost and yet experienced a strange and fierce sense of joy, watching the crowd go wild as Astorgus took his victory lap.

"Is that what we're racing for? To be remembered?"

"Some might say it's a kind of immortality," Astorgus said.

"I race because it what I was born to do, not so that people will put up statues of me."

Speaking of slips. Well, it was late and they'd been drinking. Astorgus would take that into account, know that Scortius hadn't meant his words to be a pointed reminder that the only statues people had put up for him had been put up by the Greens.

There was prestige to be won by honoring one's champions, yes. However, there was also a budget to consider, a price attached to such splendor. If Astorgus had not yet commissioned a statue for Scortius, it was because he had judged the money better spent elsewhere.

"I know," Astorgus said. "It's what I used to convince you to come over to the Blues."

Scortius remembered. He'd been expecting an altogether different sort of visitor, turned around smiling at the sound of footsteps.

A lucky thing, probably, that he'd left all his clothes on, and that he'd been sober, or mostly so.

"One of the things," he said.

_"Expecting someone prettier?"_ Astorgus had asked, voice dry as sand.

Socrtius had grinned. _"You're not that ugly. Not my type, though. No offense."_

At the time, he'd thought that it might almost have been a lie. He'd admired Astorgus, wished to know him, to talk to him. An impossible wish. The First Driver of the Greens could have nothing to say to the factionarius of the Blues, could not even, in all honor, seek him out.

The reverse, it seemed, was less true. Oh, there would be people cursing his name if he were to change over, but then, there were people cursing his name now. It evened out, mostly, in the end.

If you wished to be a charioteer, it was best to resign yourself to such things.

_"Do you think that you owe more loyalty to these people than you do to yourself?"_ Astorgus had asked. _"Wouldn't you rather become the best driver you could be? The Blues can give you that._ I _can give you that."_

_"Confident, aren't you?"_ Humility would have revolted him. Astorgus had been his rival, had beaten him several times. To learn from him would not be a waste of time.

_"We have acquired a new horse. I think you and he will go together very well."_

_"No offer to make me rich?"_ The Greens were not ungenerous. Naturally. What faction could afford to be, and still hope to attract the best drivers, the best dancers, the best everything?

_"You'll get rich either way, unless you do something foolish or get unlucky."_

Scortius' luck had held, it would seem, curses from a great many Greens notwithstanding.

"No regrets, I hope," Astorgus said. His tone did not make it obvious he was joking.

Even so. "Nothing but fond memories. Should I leave you to your work, or would you prefer to pretend to kick me out?"

"We'll put up a statue for you. Eventually. When it's the right time, and we can afford the expense."

"I'd rather you found me another horse like Servator." It occurred to Scortius that he was perhaps sounding a little ungrateful. "Although I suppose there are limits to what even your awesome and mysterious powers may accomplish."

Astorgus was not a man susceptible to flattery. He was human enough to appreciate it when people made a genuine effort to please him, though. "The impossible, by its nature, tends to be hard to achieve. I can promise you Crescens won't get his hands on one."

Scortius shrugged. "Even if he did, it wouldn't matter. I'm still the better driver, and you know it."

Being the better driver didn't assure you of victory, or even of surviving the race unharmed. Astorgus knew that, too, of course. "I know it. So does Crescens, unless he's an idiot."

"So what keeps him coming back? Does he just enjoy losing, do you think?"

Astorgus smiled faintly. "For his sake, I would hope so."

"I suppose it's partially my own fault, for letting him have a victory every now and then."

"Truly, you are a kind and charitable person. Tell Strumosus that I appreciate his efforts, but that he'll have to make do with what he has, at least for another three months. After that, we might discuss a small increase in his budget. Emphasize the word 'small', please."

"Wouldn't you rather I tell him you're considering cutting down a bit?"

Astorgus glared at him. Scortius chuckled.

"Right. Don't annoy the person with the great many sharp knives. Sensible."

"He likes you," Astorgus said. "He'll take this sort of thing better if it comes from you than if I tell him myself. It's less formal, too, this way."

"True, I am a charming, likeable person. Many people have told me so."

"Next time you are faced with an angry husband, perhaps you might remind him of that."

Scortius chuckled and went in search of Strumosus to tell him the good news of Astorgus being willing to consider a bigger budget for the kitchen as soon as in three months' time, rather than six or nine.


End file.
